News

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation hosted the NC IDEA team to kick off the Spring 2023 Grant season. Senior Director Amy Bastian, Program Manager Sarah Mixter and Marketing Coordinator Cristhian Rodriquez led a discussion covering the NC IDEA SEED and MICRO grant process to over 100 attendees. They were also joined by previous grant […]

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation kicked off the semester by hosting a student panel and covering upcoming events and programs. The student panel, “How To Utilize Campus Resources?” discussed their varied paths across campus and how they are making an impact not only at UNC Charlotte, but the greater Charlotte community. Panelists: Mackay Burke, […]

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation received a Small Business Ecosystem Partner Grant from the City of Charlotte to assist small businesses through an integrated support program at UNC Charlotte involving customer discovery training, access to technical talent, mentorship and other services. The UNC Charlotte Small Business Transformation Catalyst will support founders through entrepreneurial training, […]

Honors College student Sasha Sembur brought a new campus initiative to life through the combined efforts of the Student Government Association and the Parking and Transportation Services Office. See Coverage

To support the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem on campus and in the Charlotte region, UNC Charlotte is aligning its educational and outreach efforts through the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The center integrates the work of Ventureprise, the city’s longest-serving entrepreneur support organization, with the Small Business and Technology Development Center and the University’s undergraduate and […]

Sixteen submissions, with six colleges represented, Ventureprise, UNC Charlotte’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, concluded the Fall 2022 semester with their 49er Impact Pitch. Over $5,000 in cash & prizes was awarded to the top six student pitches. 49er Impact is the Center’s semester pitch competition, open to all students across campus and was designed to […]

Hot Route Analytics CEO and Co-Founder Adonis Abdullah is awarded $25,000 at Center for Creative Economy’s Velocity Demo Day. Charlotte Inno’s Coverage. Read More

Here are the prize winners from the 2022 49er Impact Pitch Competition

A three-year, $300,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to Ventureprise, UNC Charlotte’s innovation and entrepreneurship center, will fund the Charlotte Community Capital Access Investment Initiative, a Ventureprise effort to unlock capital from multiple regional resources. Among CCCAII’s priorities is to recruit 150 angel investors — private investors who finance small business ventures in […]

Charlotte, NC – October 15, 2022 – Ventureprise Director Devin Collins to participate in the U.S. Department of State’s Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI). Collins, who previously hosted Pier Giorgio Bianchi, the CEO of Talent Ventures and a YTILI Fellow from Italy, will continue his ongoing work with the program by traveling to Italy […]

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2022 David Fillmore is developing high-quality, ready-to-use lighting packages for virtual productions. As a lighting designer for both theatre and dance, Professor of Theatre David Fillmore specializes in “large, environmental storytelling.” Consider, for example, the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s production of Dragons Love Tacos, in which he made fire-breathing dragons burn down […]

Congratulations to six Ventureprise Alumni Teams! Seven Charlotte-area companies were among 101 North Carolina small businesses that won grants designed to help tech startups become profitable. Gov. Roy Cooper announced yesterday that the One North Carolina Business Program awarded $4.95 million to innovation companies in 22 counties across the state as part of its latest […]

Charlotte, NC- September 19, 2022 Inspire, Motivate and Influence was the objective of the Ventureprise Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center and City Startup Labs, Inc as they partnered to impact diversity among mentors, advisors and decision-makers within the Charlotte entrepreneurial community. Through the formed partnership, the Inclusive Innovation Leadership Academy (IILA) sought to drive North Carolina’s […]

Ventureprise received a $249,535 Small Business Ecosystem Partner Grant to assist small businesses through an integrated support program at UNC Charlotte involving customer discovery training, access to workforce talent, and other services. Ventureprise will assist a large pipeline of small businesses that have formed during the COVID-19 pandemic. These companies will be assisted through an […]

Charlotte, NC – September 15th, 2022 – Ventureprise, UNC Charlotte’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, has hired Carrie Bovill as Entrepreneurship Program Specialist to manage innovation and entrepreneurship programs. Carrie joins Ventureprise from Coastal Carolina University, in the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area, where she served as community coordinator and was responsible for community engagement and chaired […]

On the latest episode of “The Unicorn Hunters Show,” Dr. Kocherga promotes her startup Margik Inc., which introduces ultra-thin lightening technology and the use of organic, environmentally-friendly products. https://inside.charlottewp.psapp.dev/news-features/2022-08-18/alumna-margaret-kocherga-c…

YTILI Entrepreneur Fellow Pier Giorgio Bianchi, originally from Ferentino, Italy, won the National YTILI Pitch competition out of winners from 8 other cities in DC. He is currently the CEO and Founder of Talents Venture, connecting students with investors for starting their own businesses. https://www.ihclt.org/post/congrats-to-our-ytili-fellow

This past spring, 49er Impact Grand Prize Winner Caleb Achidi was awarded the UNC Charlotte Derrick Griffith Servant Leader Award for his commitments to mentorship and leadership as a first-generation college student. https://studentaffairs.charlotte.edu/spotlight/caleb-achidi?j=1049932&sfmc_sub=2…